There's the holiday season we idealize. Then there are the holidays of modern-day reality.

In the idealized version, the one you see in movies and commercials, everybody heads down to Main Street and shops under lightly falling snow. People smile and wave. There's no stress, and just the right amount of traffic.

Sounds nice, right? But here, too often, is the holiday season as we actually live it: Traffic jams near vast concrete parking lots. Faceless big-box stores and malls. A grim determination to scratch names off a list and GET THIS OVER WITH.

It doesn't have to be this way, especially here in upstate New York. That's because our corner of the world still has places — real, authentic cities and towns — that offer less stressful shopping experiences in which you can walk on an actual street in fresh winter air, find locally owned stores and enjoy the season in ways that feel timeless.

Yeah, you'll probably still have to go to a big-box store (or two or three or four) between now and the holidays. But it's worth carving out a weekend day or two for a city like Saratoga Springs, a town like Greenwich, or one of the destinations listed below, each close enough for a daytrip.

Millerton

Millerton is just over the Dutchess County line from Columbia County, putting it about 90 minutes from Albany and firmly in New-York-City-second-home country. That means a lot of very wealthy people live nearby.

But Millerton hasn't abandoned its dairy-farming roots and retains much of its rural character. Main Street nicely blends the new and hip with the old and familiar. The winding shopping district has a movie theater and a coffeehouse. It has galleries and a great bookstore – Oblong Books and Music. And it has Terni's and Saperstein's.

Terni's isn't easy to characterize, and that's what makes it cool. It's a general store, of sorts, that stocks hunting and fishing gear, and clothing that will keep you warm doing either. It has a soda fountain fronted by a marble counter, with stools that rest on wood floors. And it sells newspapers (yeah!) and magazines, too.

Saperstein's Clothing and Footwear, meanwhile, is an old-fashioned department store. (Think Carhartt and Fruit of the Loom.) If nothing else, it's stocking-stuffer country — a great place for socks and mittens and underwear and other gifts that are practical rather than glamorous. And if the mammoth pair of paints (76-inch waist) hung behind the register happen to fit, you can wear them home for free.

Northampton, Mass.

Northampton, population 28,500, is bigger than the other places on this list. Not surprisingly, then, it's downtown shopping district is bigger, too.

Actually, downtown Northampton has shopping that would be the envy of many much larger cities, Albany included. The city's long Main Street almost always bustles and consists mostly of independent businesses.

One notable exception: Urban Outfitters, a chain without a Capital Region store.

If you go to Northampton, don't miss Faces, a huge clothing, furniture and gift store that caters to the city's large college-student population. And don't miss Thornes Marketplace, a multi-story mall, of sorts, full of about 30 independently owned stores and restaurants.

Northampton, like Millerton, is about 90 minutes from Albany. But while Millerton is largely a country drive through pastoral Columbia County, Northampton is most easily accessed by traveling two Interstates — I-90 east toward Boston, and I-91 north toward Vermont.

Manchester, Vermont

So, alright, Manchester has a lot of the same chain stores you'll find at the mall. But these are outlet stores! So they're (presumably) cheaper. And they're in Vermont, where the snow so often falls. You don't get more Christmas-y than Vermont.

Here are a few of the familiar names with outlets in town: Ann Taylor, Armani, Brooks Brothers, J. Crew, and Kenneth Cole.

Those names don't exactly scream, "Vermont!" But Manchester has other stores with more in-state flavor, like Northshire Books, sometimes considered the best bookstore in New England; the Vermont Country Store, with toys, clothes, food, furniture and more; and the Orvis Flagship Store, which is kind of like L.L. Bean with an emphasis on fly-fishing.

Manchester is a little more than an hour from Albany. A short detour could bring you to Bennington, which has a more than decent downtown of its own.

Hudson

Hudson's transformation from a gritty former whaling town into something, well, different has been well-documented. In fact, the New York Times seems to write about the change about once a week.

Many outsiders, though, probably think of the Columbia County city primarily as a destination for antiques and art — not exactly standard holiday-present fare. But the city continues to change, and Warren Street, the main drag, now offers a fairly wide variety of stores.

There are, for example, clothing stores for the skinny-jeans crowd and gift stores featuring wares perfect for most any Manhattan apartment. Yeah, most of the stores on Warren Street aren't exactly inexpensive, and they can be trendy in the worst sense of the word.

Still, Hudson, just 30 miles south of Albany remains an interesting destination. Check out Musica, an instrument store where you can buy a harmonium, cuica, ektar, lap harp or shruti box, among an assortment of guitars, banjos and violins. And check out The Spotty Dog — a bookstore with beer on tap and wine by the glass.

That's right. A bookstore. That serves beer and wine. You can't download that.